Anne Frank House

The Anne Frank house is located on the Prinsengracht (No. 263-267). In this building, people from all over the world can get acquainted with the backgrounds and circumstances in which the Frank family lived during World War II in the secret annex of an office on the Prinsengracht. The rooms in which the family and the other occupants lived are accessible to visitors and have been kept in their original state. Because of this, visitors can get a good impression of the lives of the occupants in their hiding place. Here, Anne Frank wrote her famous diary.

The Anne Frank House also includes a documentation center and a space for exhibitions.✓

Anne Frank

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who left Germany with her parents because of the Nazi threat. In the Netherlands, her father Otto Frank built a new life in Amsterdam, but the German Nazi regime then occupied the Netherlands. Thus the new life of the Frank family was also threatened.

Behind the office of Otto Frank’s company was an annex that would become the hiding place for the family, with a moveable bookcase as a secret access. Despite the relatively large space, living in the annex was difficult: all eight occupants (there were four other besides the Frank family members) needed to be very silent all day, since only four office workers knew of their presence and the risk of being discovered was great .

In 1942 Anne, then 13 years, started to write her diary. The book provides a unique insight into what war does to people. The ‘everyday’ perspective of Anne Frank is what makes the book really special. She did not get the chance to finish her diary. In Agustus 1944 someone betrayed the people in the annex and they were arrested. Anne and her sister Margot died in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. Only Otto Frank survived the concentration camps and returned to Amsterdam after the war. Although he hesitated, he carried out Anne’s wish to have her diary published .

The architecture of the Anne Frank house

The building in which the Anne Frank house is located, was designed by architect Dirk van Delft in 1635. In the 18th and 19th century the house was renovated. The newer constructions of the Anne Frank House, which had to be added to the old house in order to handle the large number of visitors (now more than 500 000 visitors per year) date from 1999 and were designed by Benthem Crouwel.

Location Anne Frank House

The Anne Frank House is situated in the centre of Amsterdam at the Prinsengracht. It takes around 20 minutes to walk from the Central Station to the museum. The museum is also easily reached with the Canal Bus. There is a stop for the orange en green line in front of the museum.

Opening hours Anne Frank House

April 1 through October 31
Daily from 9:00 am – 9:00 pm, (Saturdays from 9:00 am – 10:00 pm).
In July and August the museum is daily open till 10:00 pm.